Impact of COVID-19 on Faculty Teaching and Student Learning

Abstract The year 2020 started with the corona virus outbreak which had life-changing consequences for nearly all aspects of human life, including businesses, academics, office work, and personal interactions. Almost all activities that are deemed non-essential have become remote, relying heavily on online interfaces, and this virtual lifestyle has now been referred to as a "New Normal" for people everywhere. Academic institutions have been particularly impacted, with the pandemic disrupting the way colleges and universities hold classes and interact with students. Most institutions have cancelled in-person classes and switched to online-only instructions, and this sudden change mid-semester from the spring of 2020 has posed difficult challenges both for the teaching faculty and students. In this paper, we discuss the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning for students who were registered for onsite classes but had to switch to online offerings. How did they respond to this change, did they perform better or worse? How were the faculty who taught these courses impacted? In what ways did instructors have to adjust their teaching styles? This research compares student performance and success rates across various courses in response to online teaching and discusses shifts in teaching methods required of faculty during this transition.